Jared Gaastra remembers a meeting with Jack Pope earlier this year.

Pope, a six-time state swimming champion for Lahainaluna High School who went on to stand out at the University of the Pacific, smiled at Gaastra and said, “You’re wiping me out of the (record) books.”

Less than a month later at the K. Mark Takai Swimming and Diving State Championships on Oahu, Gaastra took out one of the longest-standing all-Maui records when he touched in 4 minutes, 36.93 seconds to finish third in the 500-yard freestyle.

That eclipsed Pope’s all-Maui mark of 4:39.12 from 2007 and helped Gaastra gain the nod from Maui Interscholastic League coaches to be the MIL Boy Swimmer of the Year for the second straight season.

“I’m pretty stoked,” the Lunas senior said Monday. “This was kind of my main goal this season, to get that, so to hear it — it’s really cool to fulfill a goal that I was going for.”

Kysha Altura, who won the 200 free and 100 butterfly at state, is the choice as MIL Girl Swimmer of the Year for the third straight season.

“I think I’ve been more excited this year than I have been any other year for some reason,” said Altura, a junior at Maui Preparatory Academy. “I’ve been working really hard for it this year and I just really wanted it this year.”

Altura beat Lahainaluna freshman Lexi Anderson to the wall in the butterfly at state after Anderson won the MIL title by 0.01 seconds.

“She pushed me really hard for that,” Altura said. “Her being a freshman and getting second, that’s amazing and I’m so proud of her.”

Altura was also pushed in the 200 by Hawaii Swim Club teammate Jasmine O’Brien, a Seabury Hall sophomore who set the state record in the 500.

“There’s a lot of competition this year, a lot of fast freshmen and I was kind of scared, but I was glad when I heard about it,” Altura said of the MIL honor. “Jasmine set a state record, it easily could have been her or other people.”

Altura, Anderson and O’Brien are joined on the girls first team by Baldwin’s Rebecca Buenrostro-Gallimore and Kaimilani Matsumoto; King Kekaulike’s Ana Eyre; Maui High’s Lauryn Gillis and Caroline Short; and Seabury Hall’s Skylar Lickle (diver).

Gaastra is joined on the boys first team by Rio Grace of Waldorf School; Maui Prep’s Coleman Kingwell; King Kekaulike’s Austin DeCambra; Baldwin’s Brandon Kwock-Fukuda and Kaipo Acain; Molokai’s Kahale Naehu-Ramos; and Seabury Hall’s Destin Atlman.

The MIL Coach of the Year is Mike “Tex” Ritter of Maui Prep.

Gaastra will attend Biola University in La Mirada, Calif., in the fall with a double major in aerospace engineering and youth ministry. He did not want to leave Maui without at least one of Pope’s prep records.

“It was something that since freshman year and even as a little kid, I looked up to Jack Pope,” Gaastra said. “He would actually come and coach us when my coach was gone, so even in age group I’ve always trained to beat his records, so when I got to beat that 500 record it was kind of cool.

“When I was a little kid I would watch him race and he would dominate the pool. I would tell my mom, ‘I want to be like him.’ ”

With a tough double-major in mind, Gaastra is still thinking about swimming at Biola.

“Most likely, if I have the time, because it’s a very demanding degree that I’m trying to get,” he said. “That’s my goal is to swim at Biola. They have a great team.”

* Robert Collias is at rcollias@mauinews.com.

Second Team

Girls–Paige Nagahama, Seabury Hall, Junior; Alicia Wintermeyer, Lahainaluna, Senior; Hailey Bogar, Lahainaluna, Freshman; Sydney Wagner, Lahainaluna, Senior; Katelen Orquia, Maui High, Junior; Bailey Augustine, Baldwin, Junior; Jessica Kingwell, Maui Prep, Senior; Irie Gonah, Maui Prep, Freshman; Kayla Newman, Baldwin, Junior. Boys–Owen Lingenfelder, Seabury Hall, Junior; Kobe Lilio, Kamehameha Maui, Freshman; Kai Mitchell, Seabury Hall, Senior; Zachary Tullbane, Baldwin, Junior; Bernardo Buenrostro-Gallimore, Baldwin, Junior; Dylan Kresge, Seabury Hall, Senior.

Honorable Mention

Girls–Baldwin: Jacsen Donohue, Jenna Suzuki. King Kekaulike: Cecilia Buckingham, Lousia Buckingham, Malia McDonald, Shaylin Ribucan. Lahainaluna: Isabella Omura, Eva Olson, Nikki Zamani. Maui High: Camryn Ban, Erica Sawczynec. Maui Prep: Sophie Johnston, Rebecca Geng, Danielle Bergson. St. Anthony: Megan Dorheim. Boys–Baldwin: Alexander Strand, Hunter Matschke. King Kekaulike: Gabriel DiBiase, Evan Hansen, Matthew Nakashima, Jeremy Rivera. Maui Prep: Nolan Lehman, Jonah Bluh, Zac Giles, Jerone Samari.